Category Archives: communication with God

A Day of Giving Thanks

13 Tuesday Sep 2016

Posted by in communication with God

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Last week, I wrote on the benefits I reaped when I took a day to pray with no petitions, just thanksgiving.  At the close of my blog, I encouraged readers to give it a try. Sally Chambers took that challenge and sent me this message:

 Pat, I just wanted you to know I read your blog post today and accepted your invitation to choose this day to turn my usual asking prayers into thanksgiving prayers. This afternoon I am amazed at how alert I was, through God’s grace, to have stopped my “Lord, please” prayers and say “No, not that way,” and change my words into prayers that were prayers of thanks. At first, I really did have to concentrate and be deliberate and think, “Now how can I change ‘please’ into ‘thank you.’ ” And I sit here typing this, amazed at how much closer I sense His presence, how at peace I feel, and at how much more successful I’ve been today in everything I set out to do. It has been a sweet experiment that I’m going to do my best to continue.

I love that Sally took the challenge and reaped its benefits. I hope others of you will set aside a day to pray like this (and if you do, please let me hear from you). Throughout the day, thank God for the things He has done for you. If you begin to think about a need, rather than asking God for it, tell Him that you are thanking Him in advance for how He will handle your need. Believe in all the things you expect of Him and thank Him that you can count on Him with all your concerns. Let your words of thanksgiving embrace the Lord in love.

Gratitude journals are popular ways to focus on our blessings. I don’t have a gratitude journal, but I do journal when I see God intervening in my life in ways that can only be Him. When I re-read my notes on these times, I am always surprised at how much God did that I had forgotten. Having those specifics of God’s personal grace will lead me into prayers of praise every time and I recommend this practice to you. You must write it down while you are fresh on all the details; it will be those specifics that you will cherish and will build your faith.

A.J. Gossip, a Scottish professor and preacher, called thanksgiving the language of heaven and recommended we become accustomed now to speaking that language. Great advice! If you need a little help beginning, click on this link https://youtu.be/f1E_4ooa8bo  and listen to Andre Crouch sing “My Tribute.”

Studies are being done on the positive things that happen physically to people when they keep themselves in a gratitude mode. That is good information to have—and important. But, as a Christian, the biggest reason I know to be lavish with your thanks to God is to give Him the honor and recognition He is due. There is no way on earth we could ever get close to thanking Him enough. “With His blood He has saved me” sings Andre Crouch. That alone is reason to thank our God all day, every day.

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Find Sally Chambers’ blog, Everyone Has a Story to Share,” at sallychambers.com

Recognizing God’s Purpose for Your Life

22 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by in anticipation, availability, Bible study, career decisions, Christian service, communication with God, faith, focus, prayer

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For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD (Isaiah 55:8 ESV).

It feels good when we know we are using the gifts God has given. There is a sense of completion in our work. But what about the times we see our service as something here, something there, but no true focus?

I have a friend who has the very strong gift of service. She is the first to respond to any need presented. She does menial things most others would not do. The majority is time-consuming and usually not the least bit convenient. But if she didn’t do them, there would be no one to clear a house of hoarder-like clutter, no one to sit with anxious patients through hours of cancer treatment, no one to carry numerous individuals to doctors’ appointments and pick up groceries and medicine for them.  My friend doesn’t feel like what she does counts for anything. She worries that she isn’t fulfilling God’s purpose for her life. I see her as a chief example of Matthew 25:37-40; that one Jesus says is being His hands and feet.

After retirement, I had some days of wondering what I was to do. I felt without direction and I prayed about what God wanted from me, how He might use me. In time, this is what I heard: Do for every person in your life what you can and with joy. Live in each day’s opportunities. Stop projecting out to new things and stop looking back at what you’ve done in the past. BE. DO. LOVE. Serve in this way.

That wasn’t the answer I had hoped to get. I had wanted some fresh and exciting project. Yet I knew I had heard from God so I set out to do what I could for family, friends, and others I felt God had placed in my pathway. I did eventually receive a new work that I would have never seen on my own; that of tutoring second grade children.

MEGAN_TATUM_AND_JIA_GREENER

Megan and Jia, George and Martha Washington Day 2012, my first reading friends. They are now seventh graders.

Having never considered myself very good with children, this would never have made it to my personal list of possibilities, yet I can tell you that this is one of the three things I’ve done in life that I’ve enjoyed most. It is so important for us to release all struggling to God so that His perfect plans can appear.

God knows what He has put in each of us to be used and if we submit and wait on Him—and follow His nudging—that thing will become clear. And we need always to remember it isn’t about what we do, but how we do it.  Jonah knew exactly what he was to do, but he didn’t want to do it. And when he did do it, it was begrudgingly and with anger. God saved many people through Jonah, yet he was blind to the eternal value. He was seeing the appointment with his eyes and not God’s. Let us not be guilty of that.

Give your questions of purpose completely over to God, then wait and watch. Don’t be afraid of the unfamiliar if your heart says it is of God. The One who created us knows exactly where we are best suited to serve. He has plans for us and those plans will be better than anything we could imagine on our own.

God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them (Hebrew 6:10 NIV).

 

Thinking on the Rain

13 Friday May 2016

Posted by in anticipation, birds, blooming things, comfort, communication with God, earth, God's faithfulness, God's love for us, gratitude, love, nature, observation, rain

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“Drip down, O heavens, from above, And let the clouds pour down righteousness; Let the earth open up and salvation bear fruit, And righteousness spring up with it. I, the LORD, have created it” Isaiah 45:6 (NKJV).

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A grey cloud hovers overhead. It is the promise of drink for dry ground and the uplifted faces of blooming things; the promise of water enough for birds to bathe in a forsaken fount. The grey cloud covers the sun and provides shade and a cooler day for man and animal alike.

Thunder grumbles and the rain comes, spreading its kindness over the day’s needs.file0001836239952 The earth smells fresh and colors deepen as flowers and grass are clad with glistening drops of rain. The world seems to slow a bit and I can’t hold back a smile, for I love a rainy day!

It occurs to me that the simplest things color my life with happiness. Watching showers march upon the ground and sidewalks, seeing a bird wash insects from his wings in a DSCF4397new pool of water. Pondering the buds of roses about to break forth into full bloom and how their deep drink of rain will lend a hand to the process.

I think of how rain promenades on ponds, lakes, rivers, and even the sea. The larger the body of water, the more mystical a rain appears in its stroll. What sight is grander than the downpour of heaven joining waters of the yawning deep? What vision sweeter than blooming things with lifted faces catching a morning shower? DSCN4082What image more right than birds making use of a shallow basin with its fill of afternoon rains?

Lord, I long to linger in the splendor of how you’ve made things, to think on the beauty of nature without man’s interference. Where could I go and pay a price for something as wondrous as this? You give so generously of all you have fashioned; let me not miss it. It is a demonstration and continuing promise of Your love. I bow to you with grateful heart.

“For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God”(Hebrews 6:7 NKJV).

Photo credits to morgueFile, with appreciation.

Preparing for the Unknown

26 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by in availability, Bible study, Christian service, communication with God, focus, humility, unknown future

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Psalm 78:70-71 — He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens; from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance. (NIV)

I suspect there were a few during David’s time that imagined themselves to be king material.  They no doubt whispered of their dreams and prepared themselves mentally for opportunity that might come.  Other things might have been neglected as they envisioned personal glory.

But David did what was before him to do.  David tended sheep for his father.  He spent hours in the fields, keeping watch over what was entrusted to him.  David had time in his shepherding to observe the wonders of God, to think about God’s ways, and develop a close walk with the Lord.  David kept focused, and that focus had much to do with preparing him to be king.  Even more, it prepared him to be a man with an intimate relationship with God. Acts 13:22 – I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do. (NIV)

sheep enjoying the view

What a lesson for us.  To do the work at hand, as God has provided for us to do, and to do it with complete focus and to the very best of our ability.  We can look back and see that very often we have been prepared for greater things when we gave ourselves fully to the lesser ones.  When we acted responsibly to what may have seemed not that important, God watched, and then trusted us with a greater service for Him. We can never tell when we are being shaped by His hands for a mighty work yet to come. 

Hearing from God

16 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by in communication with God, communion with God

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When the Spirit does not open the Scripture,

the Scripture is not understood even though it is read.

–Martin Luther

The Amplified Bible says that Selah (often used in the Psalms) means “to pause and calmly think about what you’ve read.” When we do this, we digest the words and their message, rather than move across them in rote fashion. Practicing Selah adds richness to our time with God. We go beyond a discipline and linger with Him while pondering. We allow nourishment to flow into our souls.

The intention of scripture is to reveal the Lord and teach us His ways. It should be a matter of reverence for us each time we read God’s word, for we are opening communication with our Maker. To hear, we must keep still and pay attention to what is being said.

When God’s word has our full attention, we will hear. An unfamiliar scripture may suddenly have a particular word for us, maybe one of encouragement or explanation of a trial we are going through. A recognizable passage may show us something we haven’t seen before, some broader way of thinking. That is the Holy Spirit in action! He is speaking to our hearts, our needs. And that is when we need to practice Selah. To take time to ponder God’s teaching moments and ask what is He saying that applies to us in a very specific way. I treasure these times and like to note the date and maybe a few words beside the scripture. On seeing this later, I may or may not recall why it helped me that day, but the one thing I will remember is that it was an intimate moment with God.

That same kind of intervention of the Holy Spirit can come through Bible teachers. Dr. Charles Stanley says it this way: What we hear from teachers will be different because the Holy Spirit gives us what we need to hear. Isn’t that wonder-filled?  That God is not just able to speak to each of us individually, but that He desire it? I recall the time a pastor visited and I told him how much I appreciated something he had said from the pulpit. He asked what that was and after hearing it, he shook his head and said he didn’t remember it at all, but he got this feedback often–different people taking away different things from his messages. It is evidence of the Holy Spirit moving over us to bless us just as we need.

God doesn’t give us this personal attention without divine purpose, however. He does it that we may be in relationship with Him. R. C. Sproul, in The Holiness of God, said The call to holiness was first given to Adam and Eve. This was the original assignment of the human race. We were created to shine forth to the world the holiness of God. This was the chief end of man, the very reason for our existence.

In a society of self-centered people, it is sobering and necessary to remember that it really isn’t “all about us” and never will be. It is about Almighty God and our relationship with Him. It is about submission and obedience so that we may experience the love of God in the abundant ways He has planned.

Let me leave you with these words of John Wesley:

To candid, reasonable men,

I’m not afraid to lay open what have been the inmost thoughts of my heart. 

I have thought, I’m a creature of a day,

passing through life as an arrow through the air.

I am a spirit come from God, and returning to God: 

Just hovering over the great gulf;

til a few moments hence, I am no more seen;

I drop into an unchangeable eternity. 

I want to know one thing – the way to heaven;

how to land safe on that happy shore. 

God himself has condescended to teach the way;

for this very end He came from heaven.

He hath written it down in a book, O give me that book! 

At any price, give me the Book of God.